MOTW - artes - Monday & Tuesday!

Such pressure, making me do two days at once! I might explodes!

My name is Laurel. I'm married to a wonderfully patient husband named Sam. I have a BS in Geography, and am about two classes off also having one in Sociology. My concentration in Geography was Soils, and in Sociology it was Social Psychology. I am currently unemployed, but a couple of pet shops in the area will be hiring soon, so I'm hopeful I can work at one of those. Most of my time is spent playing Rift, reading random books, and tending to my very large zoo.

My zoo consists of 5 cats, 1 dog, 4 guinea pigs, 3 rats, 1 gerbil, 4 leopard geckos, 1 bearded dragon, 1 african house snake, 2 white's tree frogs, 5 firebelly toads, 1 cuban tree frog, 1 pacman frog, 3 green tree frogs, 2 tarantulas, a 75 gallon CA/SA cichlid tank, a 55 gallon CA/SA cichlid tank, a 40 gallon with a Firemouth cichlid, a 30 gallon CA/SA cichlid tank, a 20 gallon black skirted tetra/African clawed frog tank, and six betta tanks. Whew. I get tired just writing about my pets some days. I love all of them though, and yes, all are named (including the fish). I even remember their names some days. -_-

I'm a pretty boring person, so that's pretty much about it. If anybody has questions, I'll answer!

What made you decide to study dirt

An impulse decision. I've always liked geology, and I literally woke up one morning, said "I want to study dirt!" and I drove up to the school, changed my major, and asked the main professor what classes I should take for it.

I do everything off impulse for the most part. Which should explain my animals. >_>

I would say you can't be too Boring will all those pets to discuss and keep you buy.

I try to BS my wife a lot and she usually catches me so .... oh wait wrong BS.

Anyway, I'll start with a question...... What got you into having these pets and did you grow up having pets?

When I was born, my parents had 3 or 4 dogs, 5 cats, 1 guinea pig, 2 birds, and 8 fish tanks, all above 30 gallons, and 5 were salt water. I've never lived in a house that had fewer than 10 animals at any point in time. My entire family is like that actually. My aunt and uncle had three kids in college, he had a stroke and had to quit working, and they still kept care of 20 feral cats and their 5 dogs.

However, we pretty much always kept just mammals and fish. My first frog(s) were two firebelly toads I thought were cute at the store, and I had just found one of my old fish tanks, so I picked them up. I realized how much fun non-mammal pets were to have, and my collection kind of exploded. I never went out thinking "I'm going to get x animal today", I would just tend to see one and fall in love. I also never turn away a stray or an animal that someone needs to dump off somewhere, so... yeah. Kablooie. Lol.

Seriously, you are sooo not a boring person!!

You clearly haven't heard me speak. I have a monotone that would make Ben Stein jealous.

I do have a neat story about a cat I had growing up. He was a feral cat who was just short of being a year old named Max. Our vet caught him, and called us asking if we would take him. Since my Mom has the same SUCKER tattoo on her forehead that I do, we drove up there, and soon had an insane kitty. I was about 6 when we got him, so we grew up together. He loved me best, so he slept with me every night. And most of those nights I woke up with blood dripping off me because I dared to move in my sleep, but he was cute, so I didn't care.

He used to love to bring us animals. And not the way you would think a feral cat would - he brought them in live and released them. Nearly every day I'd come home from daycare to watch a bird fly around our living room or see a chipmunk zoom by. He would bring in lizards that still had their tails attached (hows's that for impressive?), and he brought in frogs and would drop them in his water dish. His favorite animals to bring in were baby possums, as we had a next door neighbor who would shoot the adults and leave the babies to die (>_<!!!!). He would bring them in and put him by his food bowl and encourage them to eat. One time, Mom woke up at about 2 am, went into the bathroom, and saw a baby possum hanging upside down from the toilet.

My favorite story of his is the time I went to my bedroom, and saw what I thought was a dead squirrel outside my room. I went and told Mom, and she said "We'll wait til Dad gets home and let him clean it up." Dad came home about 15 minutes later, and I went and showed him the dead squirrel.

Turns out flying squirrels play dead. It took my Dad over an hour to catch him. We still have no idea how Max accomplished it. He did look REALLY proud of himself.

Thanks Laurel!

Hey Laurel,

So nice to learn about you! For some reason I had thought you were a guy, lol, so girl Power!

Very interesting stories, you are definately not boring. I wish I had a baby possum hanging on my toilet...lol Love it!

~Lesley

I spent most of my childhood with my Dad, so I do come off as male-ish often. I get weird looks when I hold open doors for other women. Gheeze, you try to be a gentleman like you were raised to be...